This invention relates generally to the communication of data and more particularly to communications which are encrypted.
While distributed network systems such as the Internet, have expanded the horizons for the world in the collection and dissemination of knowledge, by the very nature of these systems, there has developed a growing awareness that information which is so easily obtained, is also lost with the same ease. The problems and crimes associated with the broad dissemination of information have become common place occurrences, and the problems are only expected to become more pronounce in the future.
These problems include such things as: identity theft; credit card theft; hacking into private data-bases; disrupting private computers through “viruses”; disruption of governmental data bases; fraudulent control of traffic systems; and many more.
Central to all of these problems is the intrinsic anonymous nature of the communications. A receiver of information receives only bits/bytes of digital information and the source of such digital information is generally unknown. Within the Internet, identities are easily created.
In an attempt to provide some level of knowledge of the other side, passwords and ID's (identification values/symbols) are often used. Unfortunately, often these passwords/IDs are stolen and are then used indiscriminately by a criminal or hacker.
Another technique which has been used to curtail the improper gathers of information is the creation of encryption techniques such as the iKP protocol. These protection schemes though attempt to develop a standard encryption methodology which is used for every secure transmission, but this requirement in and of itself tends to make the encryption both difficult in use and in storing.
Almost by the very nature of encryption, encryption must be complex. The Enigma Machine developed by Germany during World War II was an elaborate and complex systems of gears which was used to map each new character and which relied upon the previously mapped message in determining how the next character was mapped.
While there is a natural tendency to use “complex” solutions, these complexities make the use of the solution difficult if not impossible.
Another problem which computer users have encountered is the unauthorized planting of “viruses”, “spyware”, and other programs into a users computer. These unauthorized programs often enter the computer innocuously during normal operation of the computer and are then stored into the computer's memory automatically during normal shut-down of the computer.
If left unchecked, these unauthorized programs can cripple a computer; and in some situations, sensitive data is stolen without the user ever being aware of the theft.
It is clear there is a need for an efficient protection from the unauthorized use of an individual's computer.